The Biggest Cryptocurrency Hacking Attacks of 2024: How Are Fraudsters Stealing Billions in Coins?
The methods of attackers in hacker attacks have become more sophisticated, and the criminals themselves continue to cause losses to the crypto industry in huge amounts. Alas, the statistics for 2024 indicate an increase in the volume of losses compared to the previous year. According to analysts at TRM Labs, as a result of various types of hacker attacks this year, more than 2.2 billion dollars were stolen – and this is more than 1.8 billion in 2023. So it’s time to remember the most high-profile such cases.
Today we also summed up the biggest events of the past year. In particular, we are talking about the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs, the sentencing of the former head of the crypto exchange FTX, Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, and the growth of the BTC rate to the $100,000 mark.
Newly elected US President Donald Trump
These are not all the most important situations in 2024. The full list can be found at the link.
The Biggest Crypto Hacker Attacks of 2024
The incident with the Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin ranks first in terms of the volume of stolen funds. In May, the trading platform lost more than 4,500 BTC, or about $308 million at the time. Moreover, analysts still do not understand how exactly the attackers were able to steal funds from the exchange.
At the same time, representatives of TRM Labs suggested that the reason could be stolen private keys. In other words, hackers got to the key combinations that opened access to the contents of the desired address, after which they sent digital assets to wallets under their control.
DMM Bitcoin Platform Logo
According to Decrypt sources , the exchange is continuing the process of closing and transferring client funds to another platform. We are talking about SBI VC Trade, which is taking over asset management.
PlayDapp, which was attacked in February, ranks second . In this case, hackers exploited a vulnerability in the private key storage system and stole $290 million in PLA tokens in two incidents. The attackers also ignored an offer to return the funds for a $1 million reward.
To date, the stolen funds have still not been found. Moreover, with each passing hour, the hopes of restoring the lost assets are becoming less and less.
Indian crypto exchange WazirX was attacked in June, when hackers stole about $235 million. After the hack, WazirX suspended all withdrawals, leaving users without access to their assets. Elliptic experts suggested that the attack was carried out by a hacker group funded by North Korea.
In August, the exchange’s parent company, Zettai Pte Ltd, won a four-month stay from the Singapore High Court to stabilize its finances. However, in a surprising twist in October, the co-founder of rival exchange CoinSwitch accused WazirX of transferring $75 million in user funds to major exchanges Bybit and KuCoin after the attack.
Volume of funds stolen during hack of WazirX trading platform
WazirX representatives later said the exchange was in the process of “token rebalancing” and would soon provide customers with instructions on next steps to pay off creditors.
Even individuals can be targeted by scammers: on January 30, 2024, hackers attacked Ripple co-founder and chairman of the board Chris Larsen. At the time, the entrepreneur announced on Twitter that “unauthorized access to several of his personal XRP wallets occurred.” However, he assured that Ripple itself was not attacked.
However, it was a well-thought-out and detailed operation. According to crypto analyst ZachXBT, the hackers stole about 213 million XRP, worth $112.5 million at the time, which they then laundered through exchanges. Attempts to recover the stolen assets were unsuccessful.
Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen
On January 1, 2024, hackers managed to withdraw more than $80 million from the Orbit Chain project wallets. The criminals stole ethers and DAI tokens, and then carried out a number of actions to cover their tracks.
Several months later, millions of dollars in stolen crypto were transferred through the crypto mixer Tornado Cash. The team behind the project, other than issuing a statement in January apologizing for the incident, has provided little update on what happened or how it plans to recover the funds.
Cryptocurrency Investor and Hardware Wallet
A special mention should be made of the illustrative case we reported in the middle of the month. At that time, a wealthy investor lost 10 bitcoins, equivalent to about a million dollars, and NFTs worth 1.5 million. What is especially important is that he stored his private keys using a hardware wallet, so in theory he did everything right.
However, as it turned out, the user signed a malicious transaction in early 2022. As a result, hackers gained access to his wallet, but for some reason decided to wait a few years before carrying out the attack.
The above cases remind us that to succeed in the crypto industry, it is not enough to buy promising coins at low prices. It is also important to preserve them, and sometimes this component is no less complex. Therefore, investors should definitely take care of the security of digital assets and invest in it.
